The Giro d’Italia begins today with an exciting burst of energy and lands us first in The Netherlands. That’s ok…shake it off. It’s a bit confusing because I know you were expecting an Italian recipe. However, the time trial stage is set in beautiful Amsterdam so sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. Besides, we’ll get to Italy soon enough. In the meantime, we’ll just have to dive in head first in the Land of Cheese! Cheese! Glorious cheese! In fact, we’re klopt by cheese!

But one can’t live on cheese alone. Can they? Well, if one were to search for traditional Dutch foods you nearly get slammed in the face by a dish called “stamppot”. In short, stamppot is a farmers meal of mashed potatoes with vegetables mushed into veritable and absolute comfort food. Oh, yes, there is cheese in it but it doesn’t overwhelm the dish. It’s a versatile recipe using what you have on hand, so if you’ve got some potatoes and some vegetables hanging around you’ve got stamppot. This dish is served with a nice vegetarian sausage that you can quickly sear on the already hot griddle so it can be considered a one bowl meal.
Stamppot Boerenkool with Vegetarian Sausage
from LizzyGoesDutch.com

Meanwhile heat a griddle pan. Throw on the bell pepper and flip until charred pretty well on all sides.

Core and dice it. Set aside in a small bowl.

When the water comes to a boil, add the potatoes and cook until tender. Drain the water. (Note: The original recipe did not say when to stir in the kale. I stirred the kale in after this step so some of the steam from the potatoes could soften it a bit.)

Saute the onions in some butter or oil until browned and caramelized. (You can use the same griddle pan that you roasted the bell pepper on.) This is a good time to throw the vegetarian sausages on that same griddle pan again. Just move the onions over with the chopped up bell peppers.

Heat the milk, butter and mustard in the microwave until steaming.

Pour it into the drained potatoes, along with the seasonings.

Mash to desired consistency.

Stir in the charred bell peppers and caramelized onions.

Stir in the cheese cubes and divide into serving bowls. Serve each bowl with a grilled sausage.

Great take on a Dutch classic. I am Dutch and vegetarian. The original (standard) way to make kale stamppot (“stamppot boerenkool”) is to boil cubes potatoes together with the kale (about 150 grams/person) for 15-20 minutes, or until the potatoes are done. Potatoes at the bottom and the kale goes on top. Then you mash it all up together with salt, pepper, milk, butter (I use virgin olive oil) and optionally some nutmeg. Raw kale is quite hard to digest. Usually a Dutch smoked sausage (rookworst) is placed on top in the pan for the last 10 minutes of cooking time. The fat in the sausage also adds a typical flavor to the dish, which you don’t get from vegan sausages. But I like your addition of onions and pepper, which makes up for the lack of meat. If you want a lighter to digest/vegan version, you could omit the milk and use the cooking liquids instead, which contain a lot of vitamins anyway.